AUGUST 31 | EPI NewsFlash: Expanded Analysis of Census Poverty and Income Report for 2004The Economic Policy Institute’s Income Picture, released today, is an expanded analysis of yesterday’s Census Poverty and Income Report.

AUGUST 24 | EPI NewsFlash: U.S. workers trail Europe in paid vacation daysThe average vacation time a U.S. worker gets after 25 years of service — 19 days — doesn’t even reach the minimum vacation allotments required by law in at least 18 European countries. In today’s Economic Snapshot, EPI economist Sylvia Allegretto examines teh average number of paid vacation days by years on the job in the United States, and the minimum annual paid vacation days from European countries. Allegretto points out that there is no U.S.-mandated vacation time, an important aspect of a worker’s quality of life.

AUGUST 16 | EPI Alert: Honey, inflation ate my raise! A few weeks ago, we learned that hourly wages of blue collar, non-managerial workers, rose 0.4% in July, the fastest monthly growth rate in a year. Today we learned that inflation gobbled up that increase and more, causing both the real hourly and weekly wage to fall slightly in July.

AUGUST 16 | EPI NewsAlert: EPI as Education Resource Attention education writers and editors: EPI will release two reports for the 2005-2006 school year. The first shows how the recent alarm over supposedly low high school graduation rates is a false one. The second will show how qualifications and pay are dropping for preschool teachers. To read a memo on these and current works, click here.

AUGUST 10 | EPI NewsFlash: China likely to unravel CAFTA textile tradePassage of the CAFTA trade deal was predicated on promises that it would be good for textile and apparel employment in the United States and Central America. But in today’s Snapshot, Economic Policy Institute researchers Robert Scott and David Ratner show that the promise of more textile jobs is a pipe dream, given the enormous surge in China’s textile exports to the U.S.

AUGUST 5 | EPI NewsFlash: Overall job market expandsAnalysis by the Economic Policy Institute of today’s BLS jobs report shows solid employment gains reaching most industries, as employers appear to be shedding their cautious ways and hiring to meet expanded demand. Today’s Jobs Picture, by EPI economist Jared Bernstein, examines these favorable trends, with the exception of manufacturing, where job losses continue to accumulate. In today’s JobWatch, EPI economist Sylvia Allegretto illustrates the lingering effects on employment in IT-producing industries after the bubble burst in mid-2000. Some IT-related occupations, such as those in computer-related fields, have shown recent signs of improvement, but IT employment is growing slower than overall payrolls.

AUGUST 3 | EPI NewsFlash: Defense Jobs Take Up Labor Market SlackThe economy has roughly a million more jobs now than four years ago, despite the job losses in teh private sector over the same period. Government spending has saved the day by creating more than 2 million jobs over that time period. In today’s Snapshot, EPI research director Lee Price estimates that the private sector has 1.2 million fewer non-defense-related jobs than four years ago. He explains that the 2.1 million jobs created by government spending in the last four years has proved invaluable in the labor market progress that has occurred. Perhaps more tellingly, the report demonstrates the profound weakness of private sector job creation for most of the last four years and the capacity of government spending to offset some of that weakness.

AUGUST 2 | EPI NewsFlash: Serious Flaws Found in Offshoring Reports For the past two years, public concern has grown over a new word in the American lexicon: offshoring. In this climate, three notable research reports have weighed in with a more reassuring story that finds offshoring to be, on balance, a net benefit for the nation. However an analysis of those research findings, Truth and Consequences of Offshoring, published today by the Economic Policy Institute, reports serious flaws in those reassuring stories.

JULY 27 | Single mothers face steeper job market climbThe employment rates of both married parents and single mothers fell in the recession and jobless recovery. But while the married parents’ rate has begun to recover over the past year, the rate for single mothers remains distressingly low – signaling an uphill battle in the labor market for tehse economically vulnerable families. In today’s Snapshot, EPI senior economist Jared Bernstein shows the steep decline in job opportunities for single mothers, especially compared to their married counterparts. The Snapshot looks at the share of employment for both types of working parents at the first quarter of every year from 2000-2005 to show how the employment rate for single mothers remains depressed.

JULY 26 | EPI NewsFlash: Jordan’s Economy Marred by High Unemployment, Trade DeficitsOver the last decade, Jordan’s economy has grown considerably once it came out from under state control and became more market-driven. But 12.5 percent unemployment and an escalating trade deficit make the picture lackluster, according to a new report released by the Global Policy Network, and authored by the Center for Strategic Studies – Economic Studies Unit at the University of Jordan. Moreover, female unemployment has remained at a whopping 20 percent, while the 30 percent rate of unionization for workers has remained stagnant since 1999. To read more about Jordan’s economic and employment trends, click here for the report.

JULY 21 | EPI NewsFlash: Retirement grows riskier People near retirement are facing growing uncertainty as employers have switched from traditional defined-benefit pensions to options like 401(k) plans that are subject to the vagaries of the stock market and inflation. While employers have been transferring this greater risk to their employees, they have also been cutting their contributions to employees’ retirement savings. A new Economic Policy Institute report by research director Lee Price, Shifting Risk, examines this trend.

JULY 21 | EPINewsFlash: NAFTA’s job impact dims CAFTA’s bright claimsSince the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, teh rising trade deficit with Canada and Mexico displaced production supporting over a million jobs in the United States. That disparaging fact about NAFTA’s failure to live up to its claim is detailed in NAFTA’s Cautionary Tale, by Robert Scott and David Ratner, published today by the Economic Policy Institute. The report gives state-by-state employment figures and rankings.

JULY 20 | EPI NewsFlash: Job Growth Poor Compared to Previous Cycles Although there were more payroll jobs in June of this year than in June of last year, the overall growth rate for jobs in this recovery lags behind the previous five post-World War II recoveries of this length. Economic Policy Institute researchers Lee Price and Sujan Vasavada illustrate this comparison in today’s Snapshot.

JULY 14 | EPINewsFlash: Social Security proposal cuts deeper for minorities, those without safety netBush administration proposals to cut Social Security benefits and create a system of priv

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Economic Policy Institute

EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.